Steering arrangements for vehicles in which the wheels are fixed in orientation with respect to the vehicle are known. Such steering arrangements are used, for example, by rolled rollers, steam rollers, tracked vehicles, and the like. Many types of steering arrangements use separate motors driving the respective wheels at the sides of the vehicle. Usually, two levers are provided, one lever each controlling the motor at a respective side of the vehicle, that is, controlling either its forward speed or braking thereof. By reducing the speed of the wheel at one side of the vehicle, and maintaining the speed at the other side constant, or even accelerating, the vehicle will operate in a curved path. Frequently, the arrangement is so made that the wheels on one side are being braked, while the wheels at the other side are being driven. Braking one side of the wheels is wasteful of energy, since braking requires changing of dynamic energy from the vehicle to heat.
Operation of such vehicles, whether they are tracked or on rollers or wheels requires special training since the type of steering with which most operators are familiar, exemplified by the steering wheel of an automobile, is not used; rather, control levers for the engines of the motors for the wheels at the respective sides of the vehicles are provided.
It has already been proposed, for example in military vehicles, to control the direction of operation of the vehicle by a lever which, in dependence thereof, switches a hydrodynamic drive so that the driving power supplied by an engine is supplied to the tracks at the respective sides of the vehicle in uneven or unequal relation. Hydrodynamic drives of this type are expensive. They are not suited for application to commercial vehicles where cost is a substantial factor.